High-Rise Completed in Westwood : Community’s First Tower Built in Six Years is 65% Leased

Westwood greeted its first new high-rise in six years with the completion of the $45-million, 15-story Westwood Place, 10866 Wilshire Blvd.

Developed by Held Properties, the 206,000-square-foot office structure is more than 65% leased. Held is headquartered in the new building.

An adjacent seven-level parking structure on Glendon Avenue provides space for 600 cars and has direct covered access to the office building.

Westwood Place was designed by Beverly Hills-based architect Maxwell Starkman & Associates. Harshad Patel, design principal of the firm, said that to create more views he used three angular bay windows on each floor that also produced 12 corner offices.

Stepped-back Motif

At street level the Wilshire-Glendon corner features a pedestrian entrance where the lobby and lobby ceiling repeat the facade’s stepped-back corner motif.

The facade incorporates polished red granite and dual reflective window glass. The upper floors are stepped back creating a cascading effect on the northwest corner.

Westwood Place offers a computerized card-based security system that provides tenants with 24-hour entry to the building. To enter, the tenant presents a credit card-size “command key” within a few inches of a small sensor near the door entrance.

After Hours Entry

Among the system’s other features is floor-by-floor access, which allows authorized employees to enter floors after hours. The security system can also automatically activate individual floor air conditioning.

To reduce waiting time, the five elevators are programmed to know where the busiest floors are at different times of the day and to go there after unloading passengers at other floors.

Another feature of the building, built by Peck/Jones, Los Angeles, is a Touchcom Video Director, a two-way communication device that provides information on tenants and the building’s art exhibits in the 5,000-square-foot lobby, displaying works of local artists.